


Eternal Return

by Benjamaru



Series: Shadows of Loss [3]
Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Butterfly Effect, Childhood, Family Feels, Gen, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Lesbian Character, Mild Gore, Post-Canon, Returning Home, Sibling Bonding, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:05:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27360148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benjamaru/pseuds/Benjamaru
Summary: Theo thought she was done with the past, but the past wasn't done with her.Theodora finds herself back in 1992 in Hill House. Armed with the knowledge of what happened the first time, she tries to make sure everyone gets out alive.Will Theo be able to save her family, or will Hill House find new ways to trap them?
Relationships: Eleanor "Nell" Crain & Theodora "Theo" Crain, Luke Crain & Theodora "Theo" Crain, Olivia Crain & Theodora "Theo" Crain, Shirley Crain & Theodora "Theo" Crain, Steven Crain & Theodora "Theo" Crain, Theodora "Theo" Crain/Trish Park
Series: Shadows of Loss [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672300
Comments: 57
Kudos: 113





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all, so I've decided to try my hand at long fics again, and boy, this one is different.  
> This will be the last entry in the _Shadows of Loss_ series and I hope it's as fulfilling for you as it is for me!  
> Enjoy!

Theodora Crain thought she was done letting the past control her. She thought that by giving up her gloves and committing to Trish she was starting a new chapter in her life.

The two were married now and have been living together for a while but once Trish had graduated they decided to find a more permanent residence. They had picked a place in Boston, not too far from her practice, two floors but cozy as they had not planned on having children in any way. As much as Theo hated the word, it seemed perfect.

“You know, we don’t have to unpack everything all at once,” Trish commented as Theo continued to shove and hide her belongings into closets and under furniture.

“Have you met my sister? If Shirl thinks we need help she’ll want to do it herself,” Theo said as she hoisted a box of hats onto the upper shelf of the entryway closet.

“Why not let her then?”

“Because I’d rather spend the night with Shirley, not the taskmaster.”

“Why didn’t you just do it earlier and not five minutes before they’d be here?”

“‘Cause I’m a mess, Trish, I thought you knew that.” Trish chuckled at this.

“I noticed,” Trish said as she gently planted a kiss on her wife’s cheek.

The doorbell rang, causing a slight jolt through Theo’s system in surprise, “who uses doorbells anymore?” 

“I’ll keep them distracted while you finish Shirley-proofing the house.”

“You’re the best.”

“I know.”

The party was a small little thing, just Shirley and Kevin to help break in the house. Theo would have liked to have Steven and Luke over as well but was not willing to make them fly across the continent for something like this; part of her had hoped that Shirley would convince them to show up unannounced for a surprise but alas nothing of the sort happened.

Halfway into the night, Shirley made a cue to Kevin that seemed like it was supposed to be more subtle than it ended up being.

“Be right back, ladies, I need to head to the car real quick,” Kevin said before doing just that. Theo waited until he was out of the house before saying anything.

“What was that about?” she asked her sister.

“Oh I don’t know, he probably left his phone in there,” she said unconvincingly.

“Shirl, you didn’t get us gifts did you?” 

“What? No, what would give you that idea?”

“Ta-da,” Kevin exclaimed as he reentered the living room holding a wrapped package.

“Surprise!” Shirley said, finally dropping the thin veneer of cluelessness.

“Shirl, I specifically said you didn’t have to.”

“But you never said I _couldn't._ ”

“Come on, Theo, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Trish said as she accepted the gift from Kevin.

It wasn’t that Theo didn’t like receiving gifts, quite the contrary in fact, but last she heard Shirley still had the habit of slashing costs of funerals and didn’t want her getting them anything expensive.

Theo and Trish unwrapped the gift to find a moderately hefty leather bound book, opening it to see it was filled with photographs from all across her life.

“A scrapbook? In this century?” Theo asked sardonically, her smile and watery eyes betraying her true emotions.

“I figured you might like some old memories for the new place,” Shirley said.

“God, some of these are so old, Shirl.”

Trish gasped and pointed at a picture of Theo at age eight, trying to hide her face from the camera, “you were so cute!”

_“Were?”_

Much of the night was spent reminiscing on old memories and telling Trish stories from the Crains’ youths. Theo couldn't help but notice that one or two pictures were from their time at Hill House, she felt like this should bother her more but it evoked more warm emotions than expected.

Later that night, Theo found herself unable to sleep. Trish slept soundly beside her, and yet she felt within herself a mess of indecipherable emotions. She rose from the bed, careful not to wake her resting wife, and made her way down to the living room, where the leather bound scrapbook lay open on the coffee table, as though she was expected. She sat on the couch and placed the scrapbook in her lap, she gazed upon the frozen memories with nostalgia burning in her mind. Her gaze landed on one photograph in particular: a group photo of the whole family, taken the first day of their life at Hill House. _This was the beginning of the end, she mused, the last time we would be happy and together. What I wouldn’t give…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a small scarlet droplet suddenly appearing in the photograph. Theo blinked in confusion a few times before she noticed another fall from her nose.

“Shit!” she whispered harshly as she set the book aside and stood, “why the fu-”

Suddenly Theo’s head began to ache like it never had before, as though her brain was being constricted by some psychic force. Her vision blurred as she felt herself fall, expecting to feel her body impact the floor but for a moment it seemed as though she was just floating in a void.

_No, no, no, no,_ was the last thing her addled mind could think before the darkness took her entirely.

“Theo?” a familiar voice asked as her mind reemerged from the murky depths of unconsciousness.

“Who is it?” she managed with some effort, head still aching, so much so she couldn’t will her eyes to open.

“It’s Steve,” the voice said.

“Steve? Why do you sound like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like a teenager.”

“Theo, I am a teenager, I turned thirteen not that long ago.”

Theo’s eyes opened, if only slightly, and sought out her visitor. Her vision was blurry, but she’d be damned if her brother in his adolescent form wasn’t sitting at her bedside. Another figure appeared in the doorway behind him.

“How is she?” This voice was familiar too.

“She’s talking but she’s making about as much sense as you do,” Steve replied.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, Shirl - I think her eyes are open.”

“Where the hell am I?” Theo asked.

“The house,” Steve said, “Hill House.”

* * *

It would be another day before Theo could keep her eyes open, much less hold a conversation. Her narrow windows of wakefulness were spent questioning her bizarre situation. She tried to tell herself it was a dream but found it an unconvincing explanation; aside from being displaced twenty six years out of time, everything else was normal. _Normal,_ the word echoed in her pained head, _nothing about this house is normal._ Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she felt the side of her bed depress and a palm press gently against her forehead, that was all she needed to know who it was.

“Hey mom,” Theo said weakly.

“Goodmorning, sweetie, feeling any better?”

“My brain feels like an overstuffed pillow.”

“I’m sorry, Theo, it looks like you inherited my migraines.”

Theo warily opened her eyes, afraid that her mother would look like a blood soaked carcass, and was relieved to see her just as she wanted to remember her, smiling brightly. “Get some rest,” her mother said before gently clasping her hand, “love you, sweetie,” and then exited the room, softly closing the door as Theo’s eyes became too heavy to keep open.

Theo awoke a few hours later with the pleasant surprise of her head no longer feeling like a balloon on the brink of popping open. It was such a relief that she nearly forgot that she was somehow ten years old again and back in Hill House, and when she remembered this she jolted upright and wide eyed, reabsorbing this new yet familiar reality. It was her room from that summer, and judging from the look of it, not too long after they had moved in. Any doubts she had about this being a dream or illusion was dispelled when her mother touched her, she _felt_ her, if this was the house’s doing it would have taken away her sensitivity again. She clasped her hands together and held them close to her chest, it felt strangely cathartic to take comfort in her sensitivity when this house had made her hate it for so long. She looked out the window, the day was nearly over. She didn’t have a plan yet, but Theodora knew what she had to do; if she was really sent back in time, she was going to make it her mission to stop Hill House from tearing her family apart.


	2. First Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo's first day in the past. It'd be nostalgic if she didn't know any better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, lovely readers! Glad you came back.  
> This chapter was fun to write, heck, this whole fic is fun to write.  
> Most chapters will be around the same length as this one, I think, could be longer. I am only human.  
> Enjoy!

Theo paced around her bedroom as she tried to think of some sort of way to convince her family to leave this house before anyone got hurt.

“Obviously, I can’t just tell everyone that I’m from the future,” she thought out loud, “‘hello family, not only do I have psychic powers but as it turns out I can time travel,’ that’ll go over well,” she combed her fingers through her hair in frustration and then looked out the window where she saw her father and Mr. Dudley giving the carport a once over. “Maybe I just have to convince Mom and Dad,” she said before a knock at her door reminded her that there were other people in the house.

“Who are you talking to?” Shirley asked from the doorway.

“Uh, myself, I guess…” _Smooth, Dr. Crain._

“Okay then,” Shirley said with a quizzical expression, “anyway, there’s some leftover pancakes if you feel well enough to eat some breakfast,” Theo nodded and followed her sister.

It was a strange sensation to see the house as it was. Last Theo saw it was a decaying mess, as likely to kill you with its crumbling architecture as it was with its host of malevolent specters. Yet now it stood in all its grandeur, a flame waiting to immolate the seven moths ignorantly fluttering about it. She tried her damndest to act like the disaffected child she dimly recalled being, act normal until she knew just what to do.

“So how much do you remember?”

“What?”

“You passed out practically the second you got in the house.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you kept saying it was cold and then you just collapsed.”

“Huh, weird. Everyone else okay?” Theo asked despite already knowing the answer.

“Nellie is having nightmares. Something about a lady with a smashed up face.”

“Wait, what?”

* * *

Theo had wanted to skip breakfast but knew she couldn't, one reason being she wanted to try to act natural at least until she knew more about what was going on, and another reason being she had barely eaten anything since she came down with that fever. Regardless she did not waste too much time on the meal as her eagerness and hunger made her inhale the unsuspecting pancakes like a black hole. She was ready to get on with the day when she noticed Shirley looking at her with a mix of mild disgust and curiosity.

“I was hungry.”

“Clearly.”

“Bite me, Shirl!” Theo blurted involuntarily, _right, I have my memories of the future but physically my brain is still ten, no impulse control,_ Shirley seemed too stunned to respond so Theo cleared her throat as she thought of a way to fill the awkward silence, “so... where is everyone?”

“Uh… Luke and Nell are playing out back, Steven is - well I don’t know actually - Mom and Dad were in the library last I checked.”

“Cool,” Theo said as she moved to leave the room before stopping and looking back at her sister, “have you seen anything weird? In the house?”

“Not unless you count the Dudleys. You didn’t get a chance to meet them but they’re the house’s caretakers; they just seem off, especially Mrs. Dudley.”

Theo had nearly forgotten about the Dudleys, but made a mental note to check in with them as long as she had the mission of unraveling the full picture here, but there were bigger things to tackle.

* * *

Theo found Luke and Nellie right where Shirley said they would be, her approach slowed as it dawned on her just what she was seeing. There was something magical about seeing her younger siblings playing together again; Luke with no addiction to fight, Nellie alive and happy, it was almost too much for Theo, who once again found her less developed mind struggling to hold off impulses.

“Theo!” Nellie shouted with glee once she saw her sister approaching. She bounded over through the long grass and hugged Theo with reckless glee. _This_ was too much for Theo, her eyes welled and her nose sniffled as she returned the embrace, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Nellie, I just… I was afraid I was never going to see you again,” Theo said, wanting to say so much more, but how do you tell a child you’ve seen them die? This line of thinking made Theo realize something. Theo could feel so much from Nellie in this moment; recently abated fear, a fresh swell of joy, the wondrous view of the world from a child’s eyes, but there was something dark hidden within.

“We thought you weren’t going to wake up,” Luke said as he caught up with his sister. Theo couldn’t help but giggle when she saw him wearing those thick glasses, and wondered how she could forget them. 

“Don’t worry about me, guys, big sisters are tough y’know;” Theo said as she none too stealthily wiped the tears from her eye, “anyway, I heard you saw something scary while I was out,” Nellie looked down and seemed to withdraw somewhat.

“It was like a… Broken Face Lady, she wouldn’t stop gurgling.”

“Gurgling?”

“Yeah, like when you’re sick and you gotta gurgle the salty water, but it didn’t sound like water.”

_Fuck,_ Theo nearly said outloud, “that’s some scary stuff, Nellie.”

“Mom and Dad said she was just a nightmare though.”

“Be that as it may-” Theo began, Luke and Nellie gave her a strange look and then she realized how ‘adult’ she sounded, “I mean- it was still scary, right?” Nellie nodded, “So if you ever get scared you can always come to me, I’ll keep that mean lady away. You too, Luke.”

“Really?” Nell asked, eyes lighting up with cautious hope.

“Of course, I told you: big sisters are tough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think at this point some of my influences are starting to show, lol. The "adult stuck in an undeveloped mind and just saying stuff" bit was something I subconsciously picked up from the anime _Erased,_ which actually has a fairly similar premise as this fic does so if this has been your cup of tea maybe give that a shot.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this instalment. Next chapter should be a week away barring some kind of disaster [insert blithe 2020 joke here].  
> Thank you for reading!


	3. Weddings and Jamais Vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wedding.

“I’m rethinking the suit,” Theo said as she anxiously looked herself over in the mirror, “it feels, I don’t know how to put it.”

“Too butch?” Shirley asked as she methodically applied Theo’s makeup.

“Okay, first: don’t pretend you know what that means. Second: maybe?”

“Either way it’s a little late to change, not like we could get a dress fitted in time,” Shirley said with a tired smile.

“You’re right, Christ, I said I wasn’t going to be like this,” Theo said as she chuckled with embarrassment, “I’m sorry.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo being a maid of honor, no worries,” Theo fell quiet at this, sometime ago the three Crain sisters agreed they would take turns being each other’s maid of honor; Theo had been Shirley’s, Shirley had been Nell’s, and Nell was supposed to be Theo’s. Shirley noticed Theo’s solemnness and placed a hand on her shoulder, “hey, she wouldn’t want us to make this about her. Besides, she isn’t really gone, remember?”

“Yeah,” Theo said, holding in tears.

“Now don’t start crying, we just got done with your eyes and I’m not doing them again,” Shirley said with a wry smile.

“Bullshit, you wouldn’t let me go out there looking asymmetrical.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m a perfectionist, you’ve said,” Shirley said and they both laughed.

Next thing Theo knew she was standing before the officiator and watching Trish, the love of her life, walk down the aisle towards her, wearing a stunning black dress that did little to actually emulate a traditional wedding dress but no one in attendance would dare question the garment’s or the wearer’s intention. It was almost too perfect to believe it was happening, but it was. Theo did not recall the entirety of the service and she didn’t actually regret that for her focus was entirely on her bride. When it came time to kiss each other neither party showed restraint, nearly lunging into each other’s arms, lips meeting with the intensity and inevitability of magnetic objects.

Theodora waited to feel her wife’s joy flow into her, to be overwhelmed by their combined happiness, it was something she both feared and desired with every ounce of her being. Yet nothing came to her. She opened her eyes and Trish was gone. Theo looked back to her family, her siblings looked at her with some twisted mixture of pity and contempt as their complexions became a lifeless grey color and their eyes turned into featureless white orbs. She looked herself over in a panic and saw black veins appear on her skin, and then she began to feel in her bones a chill unlike any other. The world itself began to fade away and she was wading through empty void, she looked down past her feet and saw the stars of the night sky, and when she looked up she saw a familiar sight from an unfamiliar angle: the night club in Boston she once frequented. At first it seemed as though everyone was dancing on the ceiling but then she realized that she was looking down from above from some impossible vantage. And there at the bar was Trish, _oh thank God,_ she thought and began to shout for her, but Trish couldn’t hear her. Theo realized that Trish was wearing the exact same clothes and sitting at the exact same spot at the bar as the night they first met. _This must be that night!_ Theo shifted her gaze over to where she remembered she was that night but someone else was there. Theo frantically looked all over the upside down club but her past self was nowhere to be found. Her vision snapped back as she noticed sudden motion from Trish, she was gathering her things, _wait, no this isn’t right,_ she thought as she watched her love skirt the edge of the crowd of drunk dancers and exit. Theo’s mind was blank, at an utter loss for words or thought at the wrongness of it all. Suddenly her hair fell past her face towards the floor, and moments later she felt her entire body follow suit, accelerating sickeningly to the waiting ground.

Theo awoke, breathing ragged breaths and sweating despite feeling colder than she ever had in her life. It took her a moment to remember her situation, thinking she must still be in a nightmare when she saw she was in her room at Hill House. Theo held her arms against herself, mustering the strength to keep her sobbing quiet despite being filled with terror and rage.

“Not her,” she whispered through shivers, “you won’t take anyone from me this time, _especially_ her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This actually came to me after I wrote six or so chapters and I decided it fit better here than anywhere else, benefits of updating this weekly and not doing the 10k word mega chapters of the past.  
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you next week!


	4. Second Time's a Charm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo tries to correct mistakes from the past, or rather, erase them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting this one out a bit early because I had nothing better to do than some light, last minute editing. I hope you enjoy!

Theo stood in the hall and stared daggers at the Red Room door, determined to do _something_. She wasn’t really sure what she hoped to accomplish but she knew this was the epicenter of the house’s evil. A few minutes after starting her mission she decided her goal was to stop anyone she saw trying to go into the room or question anyone coming out of it. _Surely,_ she thought, _if I can draw people’s attention to the nature of the Red Room they would start to realize how wrong this house is_. There was, however, a grotesquely curious part of her that wondered what the inside might appear to her now that she knows the truth. She walked up to it and pushed on the red door, but it stood definitely shut, as it had done for most of her encounters with it. She glared at the door as though daring it to stay closed and face her ten year old wrath. _Why not let me in? I know your dumb secret, house, don’t be a sore loser!_ She grabbed the handle and turned and jostled it vigorously but to no avail. 

“Fucking Hell,” she blurted as she gave the scarlet door a hearty kick. 

“Theo?” Shirley’s voice came from behind her, Theo turned to see her two sisters in the threshold between the narrow hall and the landing of the spiraling library staircase, Shirley looked concerned but Nellie just seemed confused, “I take it the door isn’t budging?” 

“Uh, yeah, she’s locked up tight,” Theo said as she brushed her long hair from her face, “what are you two up to?” 

“Same thing as you, I guess,” Shirley responded, “we were hoping somebody found a way to open it, there must be a key around here somewhere.” 

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Theo said nonchalantly. 

“Why not?” Nellie asked. 

“Well, y’know know, it’s an old house, a big house, it might be lost or stolen or something,” Theo said with an awkward smirk. 

“Fucking Hell,” Nellie said, deflated. Shirley’s jaw dropped and Theo failed to withhold her laughter. 

“Don’t say that word! Either of them!” Shirley scolded. 

“Theo said it first,” Nellie said, prompting Shirley to shoot Theo a dirty look. Theo tried to apologize but was nearly doubled over laughing. 

“Whatever, you two stay here, I’m going to ask dad if he’s found anything,” Shirley turned and began her descent down the winding stairs. Nellie went over to the red door and peeked underneath. 

“See anything?” Theo asked, wiping tears from her eyes as she regained her composure. 

“Not this time.” 

“This time?” 

“Yeah, I thought I saw something moving inside before but now there’s nothing.” 

“Interesting,” Theo wasn’t sure what this meant, she had thought that what happened in that room more or less stayed in that room, but if you could see what was happening from the outside that might make things easier, “well, I’m going to take off before Shirl chews my head off.” 

“I don’t get why I can’t say that.” 

“Sure you can, just not around Shirl. She can be a little… sensitive,” having said that, Theo made her exit. 

* * *

There wasn’t much on the third story of Hill House, just a long hallway from the east wing stairs to the Red Room. The hall was mostly barren of the house’s Tudor flare, that stretch in the middle was ominous in its plainness; in the rest of the house below there were plenty of things one might easily mistake as a human face, watching you from the shadows, and in the daylight such fears could be easily dismissed as the brain’s need to find patterns regardless of their existence, this hall had only darkness and wood and yet when one walked through it they got the distinct feeling of being watched. Theodora did not have the luxury of ignorance like the rest of her family, and as she briskly made her way from west to east, she knew that this feeling was no mere lygophobic paranoia, but a simple, uncomfortable truth. She took this way to avoid Shirley and the scolding that she’d inevitably get from her, but now she was reminded that an angry sibling was the least of her worries. She reached the stairs after moments that felt like hours under the watchful darkness of the house and rushed down and into the kitchen. She booked it to the fridge and without thinking, grabbed a beer and tried to open it and quickly became frustrated at her lack of grip strength. 

“Son of a-” Theo began before noticing her bespectacled younger brother looking at her from the other side of the kitchen. 

“What are you doing?” Luke asked. 

“I, uh, don’t know,” she put the beer back in the fridge, feeling stupid for forgetting that she was ten, again. When she turned back to look at her brother she saw him toying with the dumb waiter. “Oh no,” she thought out loud as she hustled over to Luke, “I wouldn’t mess with that,” she said as the memories from what happened the last time this happened came rushing to the front of her mind. 

“Why?” Luke asked. 

“It’s dangerous,” Theo responded. 

“Why?” he asked again, _the eternal question._

“Well, this house is old and it might break,” she said, thinking quickly 

“Break?” 

“Yeah, what if…” Theo paused, trying to think of something adequately scary but not traumatizing, “you try taking it for a ride, but you never get to the next stop, so you’re just stuck there in the dark?” 

“Do you think that can actually happen?” He asked, eyes wide in horror. 

“Maybe, maybe not, but let's not find out the hard way, okay?” she said with a gentle pat on the shoulder. Luke nodded and made his way out of the kitchen. Theo sighed in relief, _God I miss alcohol._

“That was impressive,” said a voice from the other entrance of the kitchen, Theo turned to see Mrs. Dudley standing there with a look of curious approval. 

“Gotta watch out for these kids, they’re kinda hopeless and a little crazy sometimes. They need all the help they can get if they’re gonna make it out of this place,” Mrs. Dudley seemed taken aback for a moment. 

“Whatever do you mean, Theodora?” 

“Call it a hunch,” Theo said with a shrug, unsure if she wanted Mrs. Dudley as a confidant in her time travel misadventure, and left the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit lengthy because originally these were two separate chapters but they're so close sequentially I decided to fuse them. What can I say? I like long chapters.  
> I hope you enjoyed, I'll see you next week!


	5. In the Night, In the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A restless night leads Theo to check up on the twins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is out late, I had a personal matter that's taken up a lot of my time.

There was little Theodora had missed about Hill House, the least of which being how cold it was, for her anyway. It was a constant reminder that this house was better for dying in than living. It was worse at night, she piled on blankets and would sometimes wear multiple layers and even then the deathly chill of this place never let her be. Deciding that activity may be the solution, Theo got out of bed and went to check on the twins, hoping to find Luke still in bed and **not** sitting in the dumb waiter like last time. The door to their room was ever so slightly ajar. Peering in she was thankful to see Luke fast asleep, however, as she was about to leave she heard staggered breathing coming from the other bed. Theo looked over to see Nellie, eyes wide in terror, stiffly trembling. Theo ran over and whispered, “I’m here, Nellie, it’s okay,” as she grasped Nellie’s hand and all of Nellie’s fear rushed into her. Suddenly she felt her muscles go numb and she nearly collapsed, more concerning than even that was the prickling feeling of being watched now crawling up the back of her neck. Theo forced her head to face her observer, and regretted it instantly. 

Leaning against the foot of Nellie’s bed was the silhouette of a woman with long matted hair, limbs bent in unnatural ways, and a face that seemed to be drenched with some dark liquid that made plain the utter desolation of its visage. Theo screamed and fell onto the bed with Nellie, the two taking hold of each other and as they sobbed in terror; the thing crawled towards the sisters, its ragged gasps and the squelching of flesh and muscle tearing against jagged, protruding bones resonated in Theo’s mind, drowning out her own screams. The thing reached out with a hand of mangled fingers, dripping with black ichor, and all Theo could think to do was close her eyes and curl up tighter and pray to anything that might listen to save them. 

Her prayer was answered when she heard the door fly open and the lights turn on. Steve and Shirley stood at the door’s threshold, horrified and perplexed, and most pleasingly the grim specter had vanished. Steve hesitantly approached the bed. 

“What the fu- what on earth was that about?” Steve asked, trying (and failing) to sound collected. 

“Broken Face Lady,” Nellie whimpered. 

“Nellie, I know she’s scary but she’s just-” 

“No!” Theo interrupted, “I saw her too! She’s re-” the word caught in her throat. “She’s not just a nightmare!” 

“Where’s Luke?” Shirley asked, staring at Luke’s empty bed. _No,_ Theo thought in horror, _no he was right there what happened?_

“She got him!” Nellie cried out. 

“I-I’m here,” Luke said as he crawled out from under his bed. Shirley rushed over and helped him onto his feet. 

“Did you see anything?” Shirley asked Luke, he shook his head. 

“All I heard was screaming and then I was hiding.” 

There was an awkward silence as the five siblings tried to process all that had happened. Shirly and Luke sat down on his bed and Luke leaned into his older sister. Steve came around to the opposite side of Nellie’s bed as Theo and sat beside Nellie, holding her hand. The eldest siblings were visibly afraid, though Theo knew it wasn’t for the same reasons as she and Nellie were. 

“What’s going on here?” their father asked as he filled the doorway and surveyed the odd scene before him. 

“Nellie was screaming, so we came to check on them,” Steve answered dutifully, Theo tried to suppress a grin, _bending the truth as usual, at least this was for a good reason._

“Broken Face Lady?” their father asked, Nellie nodded, “Well, looks like she’s long gone, must have gotten scared when she saw all your brothers and sisters. I think we can all go back to bed now.” Steve looked at Nellie with a bittersweet smile before standing up and heading for the exit, Shirley doing the same. Their father looked at Theo expectantly. 

“I think I’ll stick around a bit longer, if that’s okay,” Theo said weakly. Her father smiled and nodded. 

“Just try to get some rest. Good night kids,” he said before turning the lights and closing the door behind him. 

Nellie continued to cling to Theo, who looked over to see Luke tentatively re-situating himself in his bed. _If only I could be in two places at once._ She was about to ask if he wanted to try to squeeze onto Nellie’s bed with them when she heard the door knob turn and she froze, only daring to shift her vision towards the door now quietly swinging open. Theo finally exhaled when she saw Shirley slide between the door and frame, holding one of her pillows to her chest. 

“I didn’t want to leave Luke alone,” Shirley said, as if she needed to explain herself. Luke moved over and allowed herself to make up her half of the bed. 

“Yeah just keep the sleep talking to a minimum,” Steve said as he came in with his own pillow and blanket and began creating a spot for himself between the two beds. 

“Bite me,” was all Shirley said in response as she sheets over herself, the siblings softly giggled before a comforting quietness overtook the room, with only the sound of each other’s breathing to lull each of them to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my favorite chapters so far, I hope you enjoyed!


	6. Intermission I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small break from our hero, Theodora, to look sideways at something she can't see.  
> Hugh has a strange meeting in a strange place with a strange person

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovely readers!  
> So this chapter became weird for me sometime after writing but I'll get into that in the end notes.  
> I'll be going on a short hiatus, just for a week, I fell behind in my schedule but that will also have to wait for later to explain.  
> Enjoy!

Hugh Crain didn’t think of himself as a complicated man. He admitted that his lifestyle was a tad unusual, being a house flipper and all, and he could not deny that his career had plenty of stressors, both mental and physical, but if you had asked him if he needed therapy he would have said no, and yet...

“It’s good to see you again, Mr. Crain,” the auburn haired woman in a white lab coat said as she closed the door behind Hugh, “I know you were on the fence about this and I’m so glad you came back.” 

Hugh surveyed the room, it hadn’t changed since his first visit. Everything was either a dark brown or a cool shade of blue and seemed to be void of sharp edges, it would be calming if it didn’t seem so infantilizing at the same time. The only part he really liked was the narrow window opposite of the entrance, a small portal to a breathtaking vista, the ocean quaintly crashing against dunes of sand below. 

“Go on, take a seat- a working man like yourself has to get off his feet at some point,” the woman said with impish playfulness. Hugh did as she said. “Now last time you voiced some concerns about your wife, Olivia, has that changed in the time since?”

“Uh, to be honest I’m not exactly sure if I remember what I said, things are great between me and her,” Hugh answered. His initial visit wasn’t all too long ago yet when he tried to recall what was discussed it felt more like trying to remember a dream.

“In my notes I have ‘feelings of jealousy,’ do you think she might be unfaithful?”

“No, absolutely not,” he said vehemently, “I don’t think I meant it like that.”

“What didja mean then?”

“I think it’s more like inadequacy, she’s brilliant.”

“Well I’m sure she is, mister, but what about yourself?”

“Me? I’m not special,” Hugh paused as he watched the woman scribble something on a notepad, he hated this part, “I never went to college, you see, construction was more of just the family trade. I met Olivia through some contract work, I was one of a few hands hired on to help build something she helped design.”

“Tale as old as time,” the woman interjected as she smirked.

“Yeah, a regular _Princess Bride_ situation,” he replied, laughing a bit, “she was finishing up her degree in architecture at the time. I was over the moon with her the day I met her and couldn’t believe it when she returned the interest. But I’ve always felt like I wasn’t good enough for her, I’ve told her as much, and she would tell me that I kept her grounded, said I was the line to her kite.”

“Is that what you think?”

“Honestly, no. I bet she could take on the whole world by herself.”

“And how are things with your kids?” the doctor asked as she finished scratching on the note pad. Hugh looked out the window, trying to find calm in the sky or the surf.

“Oh lord, I don’t know what to say,” Hugh sighed as he rubbed his forehead, “it seems like every day there’s a new ghost story, and I get it, it’s an old house but I would expect the older kids to have some sense at least.”

“Have they done this before?” the doctor asked.

“Not really, they’ve always had active imaginations, but this is just insanity. My youngest is having night terrors almost all the time and I just can’t but think it’s my fault sometimes.”

Hugh looked back at the doctor, expecting to find her nose in her notes but instead she was leaning over her desk with her chin resting on her interlocked hands, eyes blazing with fixation. It was odd, Hugh couldn’t deny that, but he did his best to act like he wasn’t unnerved.

“Being a parent really is the hardest thing we’ll ever love doing, huh?” she said dreamily.

“You’re a parent?”

“Mmhm, full time.”

“Really? But you’re here-” Hugh began but was cut off by the doctor’s melodic giggle.

“Mr. Crain, I think you know as well as I that when you really love someone, you find a way to make it work, you’d do anything for them.”

“Fair enough,” Hugh said, still confused, “I feel like I don’t know a lot about you.”

“That’s because you’re the one who’s supposed to be doing the talking, silly,” she said with a disquieting smile.

“Right but,” he paused, embarrassed and mentally off kilter by her attitude, “I don’t even know your name.”

There was a chilling pause, it was more than just Hugh’s embarrassment, something seemed wrong, he felt out of place in a way he couldn’t pin down; he felt as though he was on the cusp of a vital revelation. Before he could ponder the feeling any more the doctor’s laugh cut through the air. 

“Shame on me for not having a nameplate! You got so much on your own mind, no wonder you forgot lil ol’ me. I’m Dr. Hill, but you can just call me Poppy,” she said with a wink.

“Oh, that’s ironic, 'Hill' was the name of the last owner’s of the house we’re flipping.”

“Is that so?” she said with a wry smile, “it’s a common enough name I suppose. That’s our time for today, Mr. Crain, but I hope to see you again soon. Stay safe, and watch your hands.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter was weird to edit because some time after I wrote it my own father passed away. 
> 
> My relationship with my father is loosely similar to the Crains', he separated from and later divorced my mother when I was a child and we slowly drifted apart over the years and I became an adult in large part without him. We loved each other very much but love isn't all you need to mend a relationship. I had to grow up without him. He had a lot of issues with his mental health and addiction so the news of his passing wasn't expected but it was far from a surprise. I took a break from writing and life and general to spend some time with my family ( _though I did make sure that Chapter 5 got up kind of on time because it was done and I was trying to cling to normalcy_ ) so I didn't get a lot of writing done, hence the brief upcoming hiatus.
> 
> Goodbye, father; I loved you completely, and you loved me the same, the rest is confetti.


	7. Slipping - Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo and the kids have survived one night with the Broken Face Lady, but the House doesn't plan on letting up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely readers! Did you miss me?  
> Well I missed you, and as a thank you for being so understanding with the hiatus I decided to release this chapter a few hours early!  
> Also, trying a new font out, let me know if you like it.  
> I hope you enjoy!

The morning after the incident with the Broken Face Lady was odd but not together unpleasant. The twins were inseparable as always but they seemed unwilling to go anywhere that was not within eyesight or earshot of one of the others. Theo was happy to provide that small amount of comfort but couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated; days had gone by and she felt no closer to changing fate, as though she was sent back to square one but instead of collecting two-hundred dollars all she got was new trauma.

“Why do I have to go to jail for rolling doubles?” Nellie asked in an increasingly heated game of Monopoly she, Theo and Luke had been playing.

“That’s just what the rules say,” Luke said, rulebook in hand, “three times in a row and you have to go to jail.”

“Fucking Hell,” Nellie said quietly, eanring a smile from Theo, “I was good and now I’m going to loose everything!”

“Been there,” Theo said as she picked up the dice. As she shook them between her palms they imparted visions of other children playing games, a young boy in a wheelchair playing a game she didn’t recognize with a girl who she guessed to be his sister. There was someone else in the vision but Theo couldn’t make out any details about them. When Theo returned to reality the twins were staring at her. “Sorry, zoned out for a second there,” she said as she inspected the dice in her palm, finding them too old and weathered to be the one that came with their set, “where did you find these?”

“Our’s went missing so Steve got those from the game room,” Nellie answered.

“The what? You know what, nevermind,” Theo rose to her feet, “I’m not feeling well, mind if we pick this up later?” The twins looked at each other and then back to Theo before nodding, “Shirl’s out back with her camera, why don’t you tag along with her?” They agreed and made haste out of the room to the back exit. _Surprisingly obedient_ , Theo thought, _I wonder how long that will last._

__

Theo needed to know more about the ghosts that walk the halls and the house’s history. It was at this point she was beginning to regret not reading Steven’s book more thoroughly; while she vaguely recalled that he lightly peppered the novel with tales of the house’s former inhabitants, she was too annoyed at the mistakes and embellishments he made with their own story to give the house’s legacy much space in her mind. She made for the library but as she descended the grand staircase she crossed paths with a confused looking Mr. Dudley.

“Oh, hello, Theodora,” the caretaker said, “you wouldn’t happen to know where your father is would you?”

“Uhh, no, I thought he was with you,” she replied.

“‘Sposed to be, but I haven’t seen him all day,” he tapped the railing in thought, “never thought I’d meet someone able to hide from me in this house,” he said absentmindedly before remembering Theo was there, “thank you anyway, take care now.”

The two resumed their original courses until Theo reached the final step and was struck by an idea. “Oh, Mr. Dudley, before you go,” she said as she closed some of the distance between them, “how long have you worked at Hill House?”

“Oh, most of my life, sort of a family occupation, really,” he answered.

“Did you grow up here?” Theo asked.

“Not quite, I grew up in a cottage at the edge of the property, where me and Mrs Dudley live now.”

“Right, so, do you know of anyone who, y’know, died here?”

“Oh, well,” Mr. Dudley seemed caught off guard, “well, most of the Hills did, as a matter of fact.”

“Makes sense. So this is going to sound strange,” _you’re well past that point, Theo,_ “but did any of them get hit in the face?”

“Hit in the face?” he echoed.

“Yeah, like just-” Theo said as she pantomimed being struck in the face, “like with a hammer or something, just demolished.”

Mr. Dudley simply stared at Theo for a beat before finally finding his words again, “not that I know of.”

“Okay, thanks anyway,” she said before heading to the library, leaving a befuddled Mr. Dudley to himself.

* * *

Theo did not actually have much of a plan for what to do in the library. She scanned the shelves of books hopping to find a journal or a diary of some sort, not that she would ever leave something so personal somewhere so public but that would not be the most illogical thing to happen in this house. She climbed one of the sliding ladders to get a better look at the higher shelves, nothing but dusty treatises and collections of essays on a myriad of subjects, each dryer than the last as far as Theo could tell.

“Watcha got there?” Steve said as he passed by below.

“A Comprehensive History of Hillsdale and the Surrounding Area, by James Willoughby,” Theo read off the title of the book she was just putting back on the shelf, “sounds a little too thrilling for my constitution.”

“Eh, it’s not a complete bore,” Steve said.

“Wait, you’ve read it?”

“Yeah, and a lot of the other books here,” he said, shrugging. _Nerd._

__

__

“Find out anything weird about the people who lived here before us?” Theo asked.

“Well they were into a bunch of weird occult stuff, tarot cards, ouija boards, that kinda junk.” Steven said nonchalantly.

“Please, those are just dumb games teenagers play at sleep overs,” Theo said as she tried to slide the ladder to the left but it was jammed.

“Not if you ask Mrs. Dudley, not that I recommend you do, unless you feel like getting evangelized at.”

“You poor thing,” she said with absent minded sarcasm, though if anything in the world needed Jesus it was this house, “could you give me a push?”

Steven agreed and lent his strength to convincing the ladder that it was, in fact, meant to move. The sliding ladder was determined to remain where it was, right up until the very moment it wasn’t, rocketing forward and throwing Theo off balance. Her feet slipped from the rungs and her arm wasn’t strong enough to hold on with the inertia of her body and she fell. Theodora did not scream, in fact she was more perplexed than anything as she watched, and just as she was beginning to realize her potential peril she felt herself land on something softer than the library floor and come to a jarring stop.

It was her sixth sense that told her what had happened, as she felt Steven’s mortal terror course into her, followed by a not-insubstantial amount of pain. Looking down she saw that she was sitting on his chest and quickly got to her feet.

“I’m sorry,” he wheezed out.

“Jesus Christ, what are you sorry for?” Theo said as she did her best to help her brother to his feet, “are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, wincing, “yeah I’m just peachy. You?”

“I’m fine, and I’m not sure you needed to do that, it was that much of a drop,” she chastised lightly.

“Let’s just say I didn’t want history to repeat itself,” Steve said as sat on the library stairs.

“What do you mean?” Theo asked.

“I found a diary from one of the people who lived here,” Steve answered, “apparently when the house was being built a girl fell from the third floor and died. I know that’s a much farther drop than where you were but I wasn’t really thinking if I’m being honest.”

“Well I appreciate it,” Theo said as she awkwardly patted Steve on the shoulder. It was then that Theo remembered her initial intent for coming to the library, “you just saved me a bunch of time, could I have that diary?”

“Yeah, sure, it’s in the game room,” he said as his breathing normalized.

Theo was about to question what he meant, as she had never seen a game room across all her time within this house, when a chorus of screams came from the backyard. It took only a second to figure out who it was and Theo dropped her head into her palms and let out a sigh that came from the depths of her tired soul as she remembered what originally happened on this day. “Every _fucking day_ with these kids.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It finally happened, I wrote a chapter so large even I decided to split it into parts.  
> I hope you had a fun time with this, I low-key really like the Dudleys and wish I could work them in more. Let's see if Abigail makes an appearance somewhere down the road, I have some ideas.  
> In any case, I hope you liked this chapter and that it was worth the wait. As usual feel free to leave comments to roast and/or toast me at your leisure.  
> See you next week!


	8. Slipping - Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The follow up to the previous chapter's cliffhanger.  
> Will Theo be able to prevent the trauma of the past?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a few minutes late, had a busy day.

Theo rushed through the statuary to get to the back door, flinging the door open as she bolted towards the woods. Steve called for her to wait, unable to keep pace thanks to his aching chest, but she didn’t want to leave her other siblings terrified any longer than she had to and thus ignored his pleas and tried not to feel too guilty about it. When Theo found Shirly and the twins the were huddled together in the cemetery.

“Hey, what the hell is happening?” Theo asked.

“There’s a monster in the shed!” Luke said, pointing at the old structure.

“A monster?” Theo said.

“I doubt it’s a monster,” Shirley said, frazzled but keeping her composure, “but it’s something weird for sure.”

“Dangit, Theo, Why didn’t you wait for me?” a painting Steve said as he joined.

“Sorry, I thought it might be serious,” Theo said, only _slightly_ lying, she knew that the weird thing in the shed was an abandoned wasp nest and a litter of doomed kittens, but the frightened expressions of the twins and Shirley’s less-than-together state told her she made the right call, “there’s something weird in the shed.”

“Oh, great,” Steve said sardonically, “I’ll go check it out. Shirley, take the twins inside and tell mom or dad what’s going on. Theo, stay out here in case I need back up.” Shirley nodded and took Luke and Nellie by the hands as they hastily returned to the house. Steve made for the shed and Theo followed closely behind. “I said out here, I’ll shout if I need help.”

“Steve, love your bravery but it’s probably nothing, and if it is something I don’t think a teenager with sore ribs is going to be able to handle it alone.”

“Okay but did you become a kung-fu master when I wasn’t looking or something,” Steve said with irony.

“Krav maga, actually,” Theo said without thinking.

“What?” Steve responded.

“Uh, nothing, look do you want to argue or do you want to check out the shed?”

Taking her point, Steven and Theo entered the dim shed together. The air was stagnant and the scent of years of neglect was oppressive. Steve flicked a light switch near the entrance up and down a few times before giving up. In what little light pierced the darkness Theo managed to see the shine of metal glinting further in. She cautiously approached, kneeling down to find Shirley’s camera laying in the dust, _damn Shirl, you love this thing, what could make you leave it behind,_ Theo wondered as she picked it up. She tried to stand up but felt dizzy as something from the camera slipped into her, some dark feeling ready to take hold of her. Theo blinked, and suddenly she was standing at the threshold of the shed again. And slightly taller?

“What’s in there?” Luke asked, making sure to stay behind his older sister.

“Some kind of garden shed, or maybe for taking care of those headstones,” Theo said, only it wasn’t Theo saying it. She didn’t intend to say it and it wasn’t her voice that said it. If it wasn’t clear to Theo yet, her conclusion was validated when a strand of curly brown hair fell over her, or rather, _Shirley’s_ face.

“Is it safe?” Nellie asked hesitantly.

“I’ll check it out,” Shirley said as she braved the darkness before her. Shirley doubted there was anything truly dangerous in here but after last night she had to do what she could to ease her younger siblings’ minds.

“It smells like grandpa’s house in here,” Luke stated as he poked his head in.

“Don’t say stuff like that,” Shirley said as she looked for some means of illuminating the dingey place. 

“It’s true though,” Luke grumbled.

Shirley was about to leave, writing the place off as unpleasant and uninteresting, when she heard a high pitched mewing sound from the corner of the structure. Sceptical but excited, Shirley carefully made her way over to the source of the noise, and in what little light there was saw a cluster of small furry bodies. Her heart fluttered in adoration as she called to the twins, “you gotta come see this!” The younger ones came over and quickly joined in her infatuation at the litter of kittens nestled in this dark place. Shirley had to take a picture, _how could I not? They’re perfect!_ She snapped the photo but in the flash she saw something out of her periphery that gave her pause. The sudden silence of the other’s made it clear that they two witnessed the fleeting vision. It was then she heard it, a pained, animalistic whining, too deep to come from any of the kittens before them. With some hesitation and no small amount of courage, she aimed her camera where she saw the strange shape, the direction of the other noise, and took another picture. In the split second of the camera glass Shirley saw that a few feet behind the litter an emaciated canine form breathed raggedly in the corner and had a glistening scarlet wound on its head. They all screamed as her vision faded and felt herself slip away.

“Theo?” her mother called to her as she placed a hand on her cheek. Suddenly she was back in her own body, her mother gently coaxing back to reality. Theo looked around and in addition to her mother, Mr. Dudley also now joined them in the shed.

“Uh, sorry, kinda zoned out there,” Theo said.

Mr. Dudley ignited a flashlight and aimed it at the spot where Shirley had seen the monster, elucidating the wasp nest Theo had initially expected to see, “I think I found the ‘monster,’ not that I blame the poor gal.”

“Where’s Shirley? And the twins?” Theo asked.

“In the house, making cocoa, they’re safe, baby,” her mother said assuringly, “are you okay, you seem a bit shaken?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s been a weird week…” Theo’s attention turned to the kittens, who were oddly quiet, “what’s going to happen to them?”

“Uh, well,” her mother started, biting her lip as she chose her words, “me and your father are going to have to talk about it but we I doubt we can keep them, sorry.”

“That’s fine,” Theo said, trying to sound casual and not like they just dodged a huge bullet, “I just want to make sure everyone’s okay.”

Her mother smiled warmly, “that’s great, honey, follow that feeling,” she turned to Mr. Dudley, “do you need me to grab Hugh or can you handle the nest?”

“If you can find him, haven’t seen hide nor hair of him all day.”

“I can help!” Steve chimed in eagerly. Olivia chuckled softly.

“Okay, you two have at it, I’ll send Hugh out in a minute. Let’s get you inside,” as her mother began to lead the way out of the she, both she and Theo were surprised when the young girl reached for her mother’s hand. Olivia didn’t comment on the gesture, simply took her daughter’s hand and ushered her back into the house, but Theo knew the moment their hands met how moved her mother was that she had reached for her. This knowledge eased Theo’s anxiety, but did not dispel it.

Something was _wrong_ , more so than it should be. Why did the specter haunting Nellie change? What was with the wounded dog appearing before Shirley? Every time she learned something or avoided one disaster, something new would creep out of the shadows. With no small amount of dread Theodora had to face the possibility that the house _knew_ what she was doing and was fighting back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed!  
> Things are starting to ramp up so I hope you all are ready ;P


	9. Sisters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo and Shirley explore the woods the day after the incident in the shed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy cow I'm so sorry this is three hours late!   
> It was a busy day and then my internet just started mucking up in all sorts of interesting ways

The next day saw Shirley and Theo searching the grounds and the woods around Hill House hoping to find... something, Theo didn’t know _what_ as it wasn’t her idea and Shirley wasn’t sharing, all Theo knew was that letting her go off on her own was a bad idea. 

There was a palpable tension between the two sisters. In Theo’s lifetime, she and Shirley would become best of friends despite their differences, but she hadn’t remembered things being this awkward between them in youth.

“Okay, can we talk?” Shirley asked, right as Theo was about to say something.

“Uh, yeah, anytime,” Theo responded.

“Are you feeling okay? You’ve been acting weird ever since we got here.” Shirley said.

“The woods?” Theo asked.

“No, the house,” Shirley clarified.

“Yeah, I’m fine, everything’s fine, how are you?” Theo said defensively.

“You’ve been acting like a completely different person ever since you got that fever. Suddenly you’re clingy and nice and just generally less antisocial,” Shirley said as she navigated around the overgrown roots of a large tree, “and foul-mouthed for that matter.”

“Antisocial? I wasn’t antisocial,” Theo said.

“And you’re weirdly touchy, like, the Theo I know wouldn’t give so much as a high five and now you’re all hugs and shoulder pats,” Shirley continued.

“You got me, detective, I’m actually an alien doppelganger here to trick you into thinking your sister is an agreeable angel,” Theo said with mock defeat, “I forgot that _Shirley_ was short for _Sherlock_.”

“I would be mad but that’s something the old Theo would say,” Shirley said, slight amusement piercing through her concern, “seriously, though, I’m worried about you.”

“Well, the truth is,” Theo began after a painful moment to choose her words, “ever since I got here I just feel like something bad is going to happen. I don’t really know what, but I’m scared, all the time,” Theo wanted to tell her everything; that she was from the future and was trying to keep the family together, but she couldn’t, Shirley wouldn’t believe that, not yet. A shadow of the truth would have to do, still, she hated lying to Shirley most of all.

“And the whole Broken Face Lady thing?” Shirley asked

“What do you mean?” Theo asked in response.

“I mean do you actually believe Nellie, did you actually see something, or are you just trying to make her feel better?” Shirley asked as she peered down a steep decline.

After some consideration Theo knew exactly how to answer, “I saw her, and that’s not the only thing I’ve seen,” there was a pregnant pause, Shirley seemed skeptical but curious of what Theo had to say, “I know what you saw in that shed.”

“What?” Shirley said, caught off guard.

“It was a dog, it was hurt” Theo continued.

“Nellie or Luke could have told you that,” Shirley said as she returned her attention to the decline as she felt around for some safe footing.

“But you know they didn’t,” Theo was struck by a sudden realization, “that’s why we’re out here, isn’t it? You’re looking for the dog.”

Shirley turned back to face Theo and as she did so her foot slipped, she let out a short yelp as she began to fall backwards, down the steep decline. Theo rushed to stop her, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt. Shirley grabbed Theo’s hand and all of her emotions came flooding in, _fear, embarrassment, frustration._ Theo helped her older sister over the ledge, Shirley then found a tree to sit against.

_I need to make spending time with my family less lethal._

“I want to help it,” Shirley said after a moment to collect herself, “the dog, I mean. It was hurt and I just ran from it the second I saw it and I feel so guilty; something needed my help and I just-” she buried face in her arms, “mom and dad won’t let me take care of the kittens so I just want to do something right, I have to fix it.”

Theo sat on the ground with her sister and gently patted her on the shoulder, “sorry, I know this isn’t like me,” she said with soft sardonicism. Shirley laughed and lightly slapped Theo’s shoulder.

“It’s fine, I think I like alien-Theo better anyway.” Shirley said.

“Oh, I shoulda let you fall,” Theo japped in retort and the two sisters laughed in the shade of the canopy of leaves. In time they would resume their search, finding a safer way down the decline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this duo is such a pleasure, I've been wanting to for a while. There's actually a scrapped segment of _Doors Sensibly Shut_ that was exclusively Theo and Shirley but I cut it because it didn't really fit in (and kinda failed the Bechdel Test so I wasn't too proud of it). I almost wish I could share it but I have no earthly idea how I'd do that, it's not like there's a market for extended cuts of fanfiction lol.  
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it! (and sorry again for the tardiness, shame on me).


	10. The Girl in the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While continuing their search through the woods, Theo and Shirley find evidence of something _else_ in the area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, my lovely readers! So glad to see you again!  
> This chapter took longer than expected but I'm happy to bring it to you on schedule.

As Theo and Shirley continued to search the woods surrounding Hill House they failed to find anything interesting for some time. While Theo felt she was getting acquainted with the lay of the land and enjoyed the time she spent with Shirley, it was hard to abate the feeling of not accomplishing much. Theo had been about to ask to go back, fearing how long they’d be out here if they trekked any further, she looked over to Shirley and noticed she seemed transfixed. 

“See something?” Theo asked.

“Yeah take a look at that tree,” Shirley said, pointing.

Theo looked and saw a tree with an arrow etched into its bark. “Oh well that’s _normal_ ,” she said sardonically as she approached.

“What do you think it is?” Shirley asked, electing to stay a few paces behind.

“It’s elementary, my dear Shirley,” Theo said, looking back with a grin, “it’s probably someone trying to not get lost in the woods.

“Makes enough sense but who would do that? No one else lives near here for miles, except the Dudleys but…” Shirley trailed off as she looked around, “they’ve worked here forever I doubt they’d get lost.”

“Do you think there’s a weirdo in the woods or something?” Theo asked.

“I mean there is but I don’t think you did it,” Shirley japed.

Theo scoffed in response before returning her attention to the tree. There is one way to find out, Theo thought as she pensively rubbed her hands together, _well, here goes nothing._ She pressed her palm against the etching and before long was receiving flashes. She watched as a small hand carved the arrow into the tree with a sharp pebble, watched as the vessel for her visions walked up to Hill House and saw a young child with blonde hair play on his own in the yard, and saw them walking back and forth through the woods. And then she was back in her own eyes once more.

“You okay?” Shirley asked.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Theo said, “I think we’ll find whoever made this if we go back to the house.”

“Why?” Shirley asked.

“Call it a hunch,” Theo said with a shrug.

* * *

The sisters went back to the house, finding more markings on trees along the way. Theo began to speculate about who could have made the markings, her visions only telling her so much. 

“So, Detective Shirley, any guesses as to who our mystery vandal is?” Theo said.

“You’re the one with weird hunches about everything, you tell me,” Shirley retorted.

Theo rolled her eyes up to the the sky in contemplation, “well, based on the height of the markings, whoever is leaving these is either _really_ short or a child; a child makes more sense, an adult would have better spatial awareness and memory so they probably wouldn’t need to make this many markings, relying on landmarks instead.”

“And you say _I’m_ the detective,” Shirley said with amusement. 

“To be fair, I was being sarcastic.”

“Yeah yeah, I know,” Shirley said as the two stepped into the front yard of Hill House, she gulped as she pointed, “think we found our suspect.”

Sure enough, Theo saw a little girl in a blue dress and a blonde bob cut, sitting across from Luke. Theo and Shirley rushed over to their brother and his mystery guest. Theo didn’t want to seem worried but her elevated heart rate from hiking through the woods and running made that difficult. The children turned to look at the two as they approached, both looking confused. 

“Hey there, bud,” Theo said, trying to sound natural, “who’s this?”

“This is Abigail,” Luke said.

“Oh,” Shirley said in surprise before turning to Theo and whispering, “I didn’t think she was real.” 

Theo was not convinced that Abigail was real. Asking her if she was a ghost did not seem like a smart idea, but Theo had a special trick for things like this.

“Hello, Abigail,” Theo said, extending her hand to Abigail, “my name is Theodora, but I like my friends to call me Theo. Will you call me Theo?” 

“Hi, Theo,” Abigail said after some hesitation as she shook Theo’s hand.

The most potent feeling that flowed into Theo was loneliness, compounded by a painful awareness of one’s own ignorance; of somehow knowing the world was so much bigger than anything you’ve ever seen, or maybe ever will see, but then followed the tentative excitement of a budding friendship, a rare glimpse of a world beyond your own. It was a lot to take in but Theo handled it all with a smile.

“I’m Shirley, it’s a pleasure,” Shirley said, following Theo’s example, “Luke’s told us a lot about you.”

“They didn’t think you were real,” Luke said.

“Way to throw us under the bus,” Theo said with a laugh, “so, Abigail, do you live in town?”

Abigail shook her head and pointed at the woods, “I live in there.”

“The woods?” Shirley asked.

Abigail nodded, “in a house with my mom and dad.”

Hearing this, the dots in Theo’s head began to connect, “wait, are Mr. and Mrs. Dudley your parents?”

Abigail nodded in response.

“Do they know you’re here?” Theo asked.

Abigail shook her head.

“Please don’t tell on her!” Luke pleaded to his older sisters.

Theo and Shirley exchanged glances, both unsure of what the right thing to do was, but for very different reasons.

“We’ll keep it a secret, you just have to promise to be safe when going through those woods,” Shirley said.

“And stay out of the house, your parents are in there all the time so you’d be caught pretty quick,” Theo added, though Abigail getting caught was the least of her worries, but it seemed prudent to keep one less potential victim away if possible.

The two children nodded in agreement. 

“Good,” Shirley said, “you two have fun then. By the way, where’s Nellie? I thought she would be with you.”

“She and Steve are in the toy room,” Luke answered.

“The what?” Shirley asked.

“Shit!” Theo said without thinking, prompting Shirley to stare daggers at her. Shirley’s ire could wait though, as Theo had come to a sobering realization, “you’re sure they’re in there together?”

“That’s what they said they were doing, Nellie asked me to go but I don’t want to play with dolls,” Luke said.

“Right, yeah, you guys have fun,” Theo said as she made for the house, leaving a confused and slightly disgruntled Shirley with Luke and Abigail.

Another piece of the puzzle had been handed to Theo, though it didn’t answer as many questions as Theo would have liked. Steven was in the Red Room with Nellie, Theo had thought that it was only possible for one person to be in there at a time when it disguised itself but maybe that wasn’t the case. 

It was a strange day, all in all; a near death hike with Shirley, meeting Luke’s not-so-imaginary friend, and learning another secret about Hill House. Theo tried to remain optimistic, but she knew she needed a plan before long, lest history repeat itself, literally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A wild Abigail appears!  
> So happy to finally bring her into the fold, and don't worry, this isn't a one time cameo. I'd tell you more but I gotta keep you all on your toes ;P  
> Hope you enjoyed reading this! See you next week ^_^


	11. Doors Curiously Opened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Nellie are playing in the Red Room when the unexpected happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter of Act Two of this fic!  
> Enjoy!

“Nellie, I’m too old to be playing with dolls.” Steven tried to tell his youngest sister as he paced around the toy room, perplexed that a stuffy old mansion would even have a room like this.

“That’s what Shirley said.” Eleanor said defeatedly.

“Have you asked Theo?” 

“I’ve asked everyone and they all say no, even Luke! You’re the only one who would even come here.”

“That’s surprising, Luke plays with dolls too,” Steve said, with a bit of a laugh. 

“His army guys aren’t dolls,” Nellie said with soft frustration.

“Oh really?” Steve said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, that’s what he says at least, but I don’t see what the difference is.”

“Maybe it’s a twin thing, he doesn’t want to be just like you,” Steve said, musing.

“What’s wrong with being like me?” Nellie said as she pouted.

“Nothing,” Steve sat down across from Nellie, “there’s nothing wrong with you.” he smiled at her, seeing his efforts weren’t quite as effective as he hoped he sighed and mentally prepared himself for the commitment he was about to make, “So, what’s this one’s name?”

Nellie’s expression lit up, but before she could tell Steve all about Mr. Bristles the two were distracted by a sudden and forceful knocking at the door. Steve looked to Nellie, fear shown plainly on her face, and knew this was his responsibility.

“Who is it?” Steve asked in a slightly raised voice, no verbal response came, the doorknob twisted violently back and forth for a moment before the knocking began again.

Steve wasn’t willing to just sit and wait for whoever it was to go away. Even if it was just one of the others playing a prank, they were scaring Nellie and needed to know they weren’t funny. He got up and in a brave dash went to the door as a third round of knocking began, and to his surprise saw Theo and Shirley on the other side.

* * *

“Finally!” Theo said as the Red Room opened, revealing a room with warped floors and moldy walls, the sole inhabitants being Steve and Nellie.

“Holy crap,” Shirley said in disbelief.

“What’s with you guys?” Steve asked, seeming annoyed and confused.

“You two need to get out of there, **now** ,” Theo demanded. Steve was taken aback and unwilling to argue, he did as Theo said and crossed the threshold. Theo turned her attention to Nellie, standing in confused silence, “come on, Nellie,” Theo urged, trying not to sound too intense but failing.

As Nellie stepped forward the door started moving, accelerating rapidly like the jaws of a hungry beast. Theo moved without thinking, for if she had thought about what she was doing she might have reconsidered, before she knew it her hand was gripping the edge of the door in the vain attempt to stop it. As the door and its frame clamped into Theo’s hand, overwhelming pain bombarded her mind. It was only a second but it felt like an eternity before Steven pried the door open, Theo fell to the floor in a dizzying numbness, with some effort she brought her hand into her field of view, and only when she saw how much it was bleeding did she start screaming.

* * *

Given how much it hurt and how bad it looked, Theo was sure a bone had been broken, but the X-rays showed only a minor fracture in one of her metacarpal bones. Though Theo didn’t see it at the time, Steve had tried to stop the door by throwing his whole body weight at it, which must have been what spared her hand. Explaining all this to their parents was no easy task, despite all four of the siblings having identical stories it was hard for them to swallow the idea that a door slammed itself. Regardless, neither Olivia nor Hugh thought any punishment was necessary.

As Theo sat in bed that night, looking at the bandages that wrapped around her right hand, she thought that it made for a good excuse to start wearing gloves again, smiling at the dark thought. She laid down and stared at that familiar ceiling, pondering what she was doing here. Could she actually save anyone, or is this just her own personal hell?

There was a soft knock at Theo’s door that startled her into an upright position. She took a moment to breathe and collect herself before giving a hushed “come in.” The door opened and Shirley poked her head in.

“How are you?” Shirley asked timidly.

“I’d give two thumbs up but-” Theo said while gesturing at her bandaged hand, “you should see the other guy.”

“Yeah, about that,” Shirley said as she came into the room and seated herself on Theo’s bedside, “how did you know that Steven and Nellie were in the Red Room?”

“Call it a hunch,” Theo said with a shrug.

“Okay, enough of that,” Shirley said, “this is beyond guess work! That door has been locked shut ever since we moved in, and you just guessed that Steve and Nellie were in there?”

Theo took a deep sigh as she tried to find the words to satisfy Shirley’s curiosity, when she noticed a pair of eyes peeking from behind her door, which slipped away the second Theo saw them. Harsh whispers emanate from the hall. Shirley rose and investigated, “really?” she said as she went into the hall, “if you’re so curious get in here,” returning with the rest of the Crain children in toe. 

“Hey guys,” Theo said, putting on a brave smile for her siblings.

“I’m sorry about your hand,” Nellie said.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Theo said reassuringly, “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

“Can we get back to that?” Shirley insisted.

“Yeah, what the hell happened back there?” Steve asked.

“Language,” Shirley snapped, Steve rolled his eyes in response but didn’t seem like he was going to contest her, “back to my question: how did you know?”

Theo bit her lip as she considered the best way to answer, and decided to once again meter out the truth. “So, I have this weird gift, I guess you could call it. When I touch something or someone I can learn something about them.” Theo gauged her siblings' reactions, Luke and Nellie didn’t seem to question her story but her older siblings seemed unconvinced.

“So you’re like, what, psychic?” Steve asked, incredulity laden in his voice.

“I know it sounds crazy, but with everything else we’ve seen in this house does it seem that far fetched?” Theo replied.

“Okay but a door that slams itself shut and you being able to read minds or whatever aren’t the same thing,” Steven said, trying to hide how ludicrous he found the whole thing.

“Well how about this: rooms that don’t exist,” Theo said somewhat defensively before regaining her composure, “Steve, if I asked you to draw me a map of the house, where would you put the game room, or Nellie’s toy room? I’ve been all over this house and I haven’t seen anything like that.” The group seemed to take this in, their minds battling against something they had accepted as truth without question. “Luke, where do you go when you want to be alone?”

“My tree house,” Luke responded.

“Shirley, we just spent the whole day looking around the woods, did you see anything resembling a treehouse?” Theo asked, and Shirley could only shake her head.

“Wait but I’ve been in his treehouse, and Nellie’s toy room, how do you explain that?” Steve asked.

“I’m not sure, maybe that’s your own gift, Stevie. All I know is that whenever you guys think you’re in any of those places, you’re actually in the Red Room.”

Her siblings seemed perplexed into silence, after a long lull Shirley spoke up, “what does all this mean?”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure on that, but I know that this place is weird and dangerous and we have to be careful;” Theo said with more confidence than she really felt, putting on another brave smile, “we can get through all of this if we stick together, I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Curtains Close*  
> Coming up next we'll have another Intermission chapter followed by another hiatus. With classes starting up again it seems like a good idea to give myself time to focus on other things. Act Three (i.e the next few chapters after the Intermission) is _probably_ going to be the final one but don't hold me to that.  
> Readers who have been with me since the beginning probably thought the first segment seemed familiar, and that's because it's lifted almost whole cloth from the first fic in this series (as well as my first fic ever), _Doors Sensibly Shut_ , with some changes at the end thanks to Time Lord Theodora. I wanted to re-establish some of my more head-canon ideas that I first brought up at the start of the series so that new viewers wouldn't feel left out, but why have a flashback when you have a time traveler?  
> Thank you so much for reading! See you next week! ^_^


	12. Intermission II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poppy takes a stroll through her beloved home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Than you for coming back!  
> For those of you reading as this is coming out: casual reminder that there will be no chapter next week. If you're reading this after that though go ahead and forget that I said that. ~~like it was just a dream~~  
>  Hope you enjoy!

Poppy Hill haunted the halls of her husband’s family home for longer than she could be bothered to remember. Time wasn’t a concern for her, it wasn’t even a factor of her existence anymore; whatever separated past, present, and future held no sway over her now that she had “woken up”. All that mattered was that she was there, with her children and no one could ever take them away from her, not anymore.

One of her favorite things to do was to go on walks with her children, gingerly pushing her son in his wheelchair while her daughter followed behind. Neither of them spoke much, or at all, but that didn’t matter, all that mattered was that they were together forever.

Poppy was exceptionally excited on this walk for today was the day the newcomers arrived, a beautiful family that would spruce up her beloved home and make it as glorious it once was; unlike those wretched, dreadful Dudleys - those homewreckers (in more ways than one). Yes, this would be a good family, so good Poppy planned to let them stay. Oh she knew what they were, they did not plan on staying, but they seemed so lovely and it seemed so rude to have them fix the place up and kick them up, no no no that would not do, Poppy was nothing if not a good host. And good work deserves an equal reward.

She wheeled her son up to the grand window on the second floor and waited. Poppy did not need to wait, she could just be in the moment they arrived but she’d be damned if she was going to miss anything, and more than that it was funny to act like she had to stay in one moment at a time. Poppy practically vibrated with excitement as she saw the car roll in from around the hills towards her great home.

“There they are, my loves,” Poppy whispered to her children, “our new friends. Oh, you’ll have so much fun with them.”

The car pulled into the carpark and out of view and so the spectral family turned around to look down through the gap in the floor, Poppy leaning over the railing at such an angle to send a person with actual mass to the floor below, but to her gravity was more of a polite suggestion she had long ago learned to ignore.

They filed into view, seven in total, five kids, some at just the right age to play with her own. “Remember, my dear,” she whispered to her silent son, “if you want to play with them, just bang on the walls to get their attention, just like you do for Mommy.” Suddenly one of the children down below stopped in her tracks, small droplets of blood dripping from her nose.

“Theo, what’s wrong?” the father asked as he rushed to his daughter’s side, catching the poor thing as she collapsed. The mother joined them and felt her daughter’s forehead and looked to her husband, “she has a fever.”

Before long a doctor had been called over, who declared that the child was fine and it was merely stress that caused the sudden collapse, though Poppy didn’t trust this doctor, not that she trusted any doctor, but this one seemed anxious and in a hurry to leave. _How rude of him ___ _ _. Poppy knew better - as mothers always do - she knew that the child was not simply unconscious, but dreaming; dreaming a dream she had to see for herself.__

____

* * *

__

The child’s dream was quite a surprise to Poppy indeed, it had grown into something resembling an office of one of those doctors who called her crazy, and the strangest thing was that when Poppy stepped into the dream she seemed to be assigned the role of one of those doctors, deliciously ironic. Poppy was seated at a desk and the child was on a couch on the opposite from her.

“Hey there, precious, what’s your name?” She asked the child.

“Uh… Theodora, but I’d rather be called Theo,” the child responded, “who are you?”

“Oh no one in particular, I’m just here to help,” Poppy said with a giggle, “what seems to be the matter dear?”

“I don’t really know, I feel like I’m somebody else, but still me at the same time?”

“How so?” Poppy asked, filled with curiosity.

“I have these memories, or I guess they’re dreams but they feel so real. So many bad things happen in them,” Theo said, unease written on her face.

“Like what?

“I had a dream that my mom died, that my little brother wouldn’t stop putting poison in his body, that my older brother told the whole world our secrets, and my little sister died too,” Theo said on the verge of tears, “and my little brother got in trouble and we all tried to save him and then my dad died…” Theo covered her face as she began to cry, “and it was all because of that stupid house!”

 _How interesting,_ Poppy thought, _how very, very interesting,_ her suspicions confirmed.

“You’re a lot like me,” Poppy said.

“What do you mean?” Theo asked as she wiped tears off her face.

“You’re an old soul, in more ways than one,” Poppy said with a wide smile, “I can tell you’re not the same girl who walked into this place, no, you’re not a girl at all, you’re woman.” Theo didn’t respond but the look of confusion spoke volumes. “It’ll all make sense in a bit, but for now I’d hate to keep you from your family,” Poppy got up, walked over to Theo, and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “and I wouldn’t worry about _this_ dream, you can go ahead and forget all about it,” Poppy placed a finger on Theo’s forehead and suddenly the girl was gone.

Poppy looked around at the room the dream created, best not let her back in here, but it’d be a shame to let a perfectly good dream go to waste when there was so much she could do with it. Poppy giggled in excitement, things had changed, the script was flipped and she was more than willing to step into this new part. And while she planned to get to know that mother better, she couldn’t help but be moved by the father’s swiftness when caring for his child, a rare quality in men, _plus he's just too darn cute._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not 100% sure why but I absolutely **love** Poppy, she only had speaking lines in the last two episodes and yet she snuck into my mind as a favorite villain. Currently she's relegated to the dreamy intermissions but I doubt she'll stay there long ;)  
> I'm off next week, I'll count the seconds until we are reunited <3 If you need a fix of Theodora Crain before I'm back and you somehow _haven't_ read The Kite to her Line by Dramaticirony, drop **everything** and read it right now and you can thank me later.  
> Thank you so much for reading, see you soon!  
> (P.S. This is now my longest fic to date and it's not even finished yet lol)


	13. The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo relives the night of the storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah this is early huh? There's a reason for that. I have a new job that has me working Monday nights right when I'd normally update this so I've decided to start posting chapters on Sunday instead. Plus, it's a small way to say "thank you" for being understanding of the hiatus.  
> I'm so excited to get this out, welcome to Act III babes!

The storm had come suddenly and fiercely, and though Theodora had remembered the storm in the foggy parts of her mind where all memories of her first life in this home lie she was nonetheless startled by the sound of the chandelier crashing into the floor. It did not take her long to remember what would happen tonight, vaguely, at least. Can’t wait to see how a fractured hand changes things.

“Jesus Christ!” Theo heard Nellie yell from the foyer as she exited her room.

She was joined in the hall by Steve, who was clearly eager to see what was going on. Theo let him go on ahead as she decided to peek into Shirley’s room, something did not recall doing last time, and was surprised to see her fast asleep.

“Don’t listen to the red haired woman, daddy,” Shirley said in her sleep. _That’s on par for her I guess._

Her curiosity sated, Theo joined the rest of her family in the foyer, and in time Shirley would join as well once a large chunk of hail shattered her window. From then on Theo didn’t try to change anything, partially because she didn’t remember enough to try to contradict anything, but mostly because she was steeling herself for the one thing she remembered vividly: Nellie’s disappearance. And so she played her part, right up until the time came.

“Theo, hold your sister’s hand,” her mother commanded Theo, who obliged without hesitation this time.

It was already obvious to anyone who could see her that Nellie was frightened, but thanks to Theo’s sensitivity she could feel it, and it was almost too much to deal with but Theo had a mission; she wasn’t going to let Nellie out of her sight, she wouldn’t let the house disappear her sister again. Lightning flashed and her mother started counting.

“One… two… three…” the thunder clap came on cue, “its moving away. What did I tell you, Nellie, it’s what storms do-,” her mother turned and shined her flashlight at the two youngest sisters, “where’s your sister?”

“What,” Theo said in confusion, looking back and forth between Nellie and her mother, “what are you talking about? She’s right for here.”

“Theo?” Nellie said as she looked all around, her hand phasing out of Theo’s grip.

_Oh fuck._

* * *

Theo fruitlessly shouted for her family as they scattered to look for her, despite being right there. Eventually Theo decided to follow her family as they moved about the house in vain hope of finding her. Theo knew that the House wouldn’t let her be seen until it was done tormenting her family so she refused to give it the satisfaction of scarring her too. As she ghosted around her family, she couldn’t help but witness something most peculiar. Her father would sometimes walk into one room and then exit another. The idea that Hill House might have secret passages was plausible in Theo’s mind, she was the one who found the secret bootlegging basement after all, but there was no way her father could get from one side of the house to the other as fast as he was appearing too. She followed him into the library, and as she watched him ascend the spiral staircase something dark silently fell to the floor.

A dark mass lay there, and when lightning flashed it became all too clear what it was; the Broken Face Lady twitched there in a crumpled heap, Theo gulped, cold sweat drenching her as she stared in awe. Motion at the top of the staircase momentarily drew her attention away, her father stood there blankly staring down at the mangled specter for a moment before turning and walking towards the Red Room.

“Dad,” Theo tried to shout, though it was a little more than a shrill whisper.

Theo was going to give chase when she noticed movement from the Broken Face Lady, it clawed at the floor, dragging itself in her direction. Theo forced her body to move, staggering back towards the library door but found it shut and unwilling to acquiesce to her.

“Open up you fucking piece of shit!” she cried out as she desperately pounded on the door, agitating her injured hand.

Suddenly she could feel it, a cold aura permeating the air, the Broken Face Lady was right behind her. Theo didn’t want to look, by God, she didn’t want to look, but she had to, or so she told herself, she had to or she’d be stuck there, trapped between it and the door forever. _I’m already in hell, what’s the worst this could do?_

There before her was the same misshapen phantasm that terrorised Nellie and herself just a few nights ago, just as broken and petiable as it was painful to behold. It reached it’s bent and crooked arm towards Theo, but only halfway. The two spent some number of seemingly eternal seconds staring at each other. It dawned on Theo that the thing could grab her if it wanted to, yet chose not to. There was something extraordinarily humble about it, as though it was pleading to her for something. With great hesitation, Theo extended her own hand towards the thing’s own; she paused when they were inches apart, half expecting the thing to snap forward and grab her, but it was patient. Mustering her courage, Theo took the Broken Face Lady’s hand in her own.

Theo’s head was suddenly in agony, as though her brain was trying to force itself out through her eye sockets. Her vision blurred and the thunder claps became muffled, she felt herself falling into a void, again.

“Are you awake, Theo?” a familiar voice asked Theo as her consciousness rose from whatever depths she had sunk to. Her eyes opened but everything was blurry.

“Who is that?” She asked.

“It’s me, Steve, do you remember me?” The voice asked.

“Of course I remember you,” she said as her vision sharpened. She saw that Steve was in fact sitting at her bedside, but he was an adult now. “Oh fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, super scared going forward. I've been excited for and yet dreading Act III ever since I wrote the outline for this fic for some reason.  
> In any case, I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to tell me your thoughts in the comments and I'll try to respond in a timely fashion. Note that if I don't respond it might be because I don't know how to without giving something away, but I also have ADHD so it might just be because I'm a mess lol.  
> See you next Sunday with the next instalment of _The Time Traveling Psychic Lesbian Chronical!_ (I wish I could say that was the working title but I actually came up with 'Eternal Return' pretty quickly)


	14. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo wakes up in a different time and explores the ramifications of her leap to the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovely readers, so good to see you again.  
> This one is long because I couldn't bare to slice this up and distribute it over a few weeks, I wouldn't even know where to cut. I had the flu this last week so maybe my judgement was suffering but either way I don't feel like keeping what I have written from you all longer than I have to. This isn't to say I'm trying to rush Act III, if anything I'm trying to take my time because I think it will be denser than the previous two and I've decided bigger chapters is better than more chapters. Who knows I might just decide that an Act IV is in order and all this jabbering will be for nothing lol.  
> Anyway, that's enough from me, let's catch up with Theo, and get Theo caught up.

Theodora Crain had been prepared to stay in the past for as long as she had to in order to protect her family from their fate, she hadn’t even thought about how she would return to her own time, figuring she would cross that bridge when she got to it. But here she was, an adult again with her mission in the past unfinished. She examined her surroundings, very clearly she was in a hospital, and a patient at that. Her older brother, Steven, was at her bedside.

“This is going to sound strange,” Theo said hesitantly, “but what year is it?”

“Twenty-Eighteen,” Steve answered, “what’s the last thing you remember?”

“I was, we were at the house - Hill House - there was a storm and I was looking for dad-” when Theo mentioned their father, Steve winced ever so slightly, “what?”

“Uh, nothing, nothing,” he said, “but, uh, that makes sense. You’ve had issues with your memory ever since that summer,” Theo gave him an insistent look and he continued, “this isn’t your first bout of amnesia.”

_Fucking perfect._

“That summer, what happened that summer, after that storm, you remember that storm right?” she insisted.

“Yeah, okay, give me a sec,” he inhaled deeply and looked around the room and stuttered, as though looking for the right words to say, “I don’t know how to tell you this…”

“Someone died, didn’t they?” She interrupted.

“Yeah, dad did,” Steve said grimly.

“Dad?” Theo said in surprise, “how- why- what happened?” she felt her emotions swell, her father wasn’t supposed to die, not back then. _This is wrong, this is **all** wrong_. She steeled herself and continued to question, “and what about mom?”

Steve inhaled and sighed heavily as he took off his glasses to rub his eyes, “she’s locked up, she’s the reason dad died.”

“The reason? What like she-” Theo didn’t want to finish the thought, it was too grim so say out loud; serendipitously, Steve’s cell started to ring before she could attempt to.

“It’s Shirley,” Steve said sourly as he looked at his phone, “do you mind if I answer?” Theo made a flustered gesture that approximated _go ahead_ , still too shell shocked to speak.

“Hey, Shirl…” Steve said as he answered the phone and made his way out of the room, Theo strained her ears to eavesdrop , “yeah I’m with her right now, she’s awake... She’s missing a lot of time… Hill House… No, I had to remind her about dad… Well I wasn’t going to lie to her!... I’m not going to treat her like some gerriatric old woman... Look, you don’t get to lecture me on how to take care of our sister from the sidelines… Well if you have so many bright ideas on how to handle this where are you?... They live on the other side of the country, what's your excuse?... Fine, I’ll take care of it, like always, have fun at Hamilton!” Steve hung up, cursing under his breath before collecting himself and coming back into the room.

“What was that about?” Theo asked.

“Well Shirley’s doing a shoot in New York, it’s very important, apparently,” Steve said with poorly hidden annoyance.

“A shoot?”

“Oh, yeah, right, she’s a freelance photographer, she hops all over the country, I shouldn’t be surprised she’s not here honestly.”

“And what about Nellie and Luke?”

“In L.A., for mostly different reasons,” Steve sighed and buried his head in his palms.

Conversation from that point continued to be about filling Theo in on everything that had happened since the Hill House, and she could not help but notice that for all the changes in individual actions, history was not dramatically altered in the grand scheme. Her father had died that last night, killed by their mother, who was sentenced to thirty years in prison after pleading guilty. They still went to live with aunt Janet where they had an almost normal life. Theo’s “memory issues” began to be really disruptive in middle school, going from misremembering important details or forgetting what she was doing to entering fugue states or comas for anywhere from a day to a month at times. She did graduate college and get a job eventually but she was no longer a doctor, as this time around she didn’t take Steve’s book money, because Steve never wrote the book. Steve had apparently spent a good deal of his adult life helping Theo and the others stay on their feet and had little time for his own passions; he never married, and neither did Shirley. Luke, however, had become a graphic novel artist, specializing in the supernatural and macabre, some in the family objected to instances where his art looked a little too similar to things from their own collective past, but quickly got over that when he started spending every penny he made on drugs. Nellie was the most similar to her original self, still met Arthur while seeking treatment for her sleep paralysis, married him, and watched him die.

“I can’t believe it,” Theo said to herself as she processed everything.

“I know, it’s wild stuff-” Steve began but was cut off.

“It was all for nothing!” Theo said, barely containing her frustration in a meaningful way. She wanted to scream and rip something to shreds but was too addled to properly lash out. Consceding to her own impotence, Theo buried her face in her palms and wept, letting the world around her be washed away in the flood of her own despair. It hadn’t been a minute before she felt a hand - Steve’s hand - gently grasp her shoulder. A deluge of emotions poured out of him through the gesture; concern, stress, resentment. Grief, anger, guilt, but buried not too far beneath the bitter emotions was the one she needed to feel the most: love.

* * *

Theodora was released from the hospital in late October, which was sooner than the doctors’ initial expectations, but considering she never actually forgot anything about the world at large it was deemed unnecessary to keep her any longer. 

Since Shirley was no longer an undertaker or even a homeowner this time around, there was no guest house for Theo to return to, thankfully she did have an apartment in Methuen. A side effect of being raised by house flippers was being able to walk into an unfurnished home and see it for all it’s possibilities and not simply an empty building, and it filled Theo with dread as she looked around her abode and, despite it being filled with her affects, there was no future to be seen in this place. It was somewhere to stay, not to live. It almost made her wish to forget that in her other life, in just a few years from now, she would be moving into a cozy home with someone she loved, loved more than herself, like family, was family. She decided then and there she had to salvage whatever she could out of this new world she found herself in.

* * *

On the night of the twenty-seventh Theo was driving to Boston with one objective in mind: meet Trish. Even if she couldn’t save her family in the past, she wouldn’t let Hill House take Trish away from her. She had spent a good deal of the night psyching herself up; _things will be different, there’s no helping that, but I need her in my life, as long as I have her nothing else matters_. Those thoughts kept her focused, blocking out any other thoughts from invading her mind, she was great at building walls after all. However, when Boston was in sight she looked at the time, nearly midnight, a thought broke through all her walls: _Nellie dies tonight. She shook her head_.

“That was last time, everything’s so different now, she’s probably safe, at home, in bed,” Theo said out loud, trying to convince herself.

When Theo got into the city she pulled over and took out her phone, _three hour time difference between here and L.A., she might still be awake._ She called Nellie and waited as the phone rang and rang and rang and then Nellie's voice.

`“Hi! This is Nell, please leave a message after the beep!”` _Fuck._

“Hey, Nellie, so you probably heard but I had an… episode or whatever you want to call it, and I hear things haven’t gone too well for you either… I’d love to talk to you, when you feel ready. Call me back.”

As much as Theo wanted to tell herself not to worry, that Nellie was probably just sleeping, she knew she couldn’t take that chance. Cursing, she headed west, towards Hill House. There’d be other chances to meet Trish, she couldn’t afford to be wrong about Nellie.

* * *

Theo finally arrived at Hill House around three o’clock. The place was as decrepit as to be expected, it looks as though whoever owned it this time around left it to rot as well. Theo didn’t have much time to think about such things though, as she approached the house she could see through stained and cracked windows that somebody was in there. _I hate being right._

She swung open the front door and walked into the foyer, the scent of dust and mold hitting her like a truck, but more upsetting than that was watching Nellie spinning, dancing through the statuary and into the library.

“Nellie!” She cried out as she ran after.

By the time Theo got into the library Nellie had already ascended the spiral staircase and was standing beyond the railing, noose around her neck. “Theo?” Nellie said in confusion as her eyes locked on her.

“Nellie! Don’t move, just hold on, I’m coming to you!” Theo bolted up the old metal staircase, probably shaking a few screws loose but that was something to worry about later.

“Theo, what’s going on?” Nellie said as she clung to the railing with all her strength? Theo didn’t bother answering, grabbing Nellie’s hand and helping her over and away from the edge and throwing the noose off of her. Nellie sobbed into Theo’s chest as she held her tightly. Theo was so flushed with relief that it took her a moment to realize she couldn’t feel Nellie.

As though sensing Theo’s revelation, ‘Nellie’ stopped crying and looked up at her, “thanks for coming,” she said with an insidious grin. Before Theo could question what was going on, she was hurled off her feet and over the railing. Time almost seemed to slow down as her mind frantically tried to think of a way to evade the floor rapidly rising up to her, but nothing came to her except an excruciating pain as she collided with stone.

Theo thought that would be the end, but she was still conscious despite the ruination of her entire body. She looked up, expecting to see Nellie, but instead seeing her father, young as he was in her childhood, and standing beside him was a red haired woman in a flapper dress. She felt the floor give way and she was falling again before landing on a wooden floor. She moaned and gasped with the impact, then noticed she was at the foot of a bed, and before long, young Nellie was peering down at her, and screaming. Theo reached out, to what end she did not know, but soon enough she was falling again, landing on top of the footboard and feeling more bones twist and snap. By the time she hoisted herself up on her broken limbs she saw that her younger self had joined Nellie on the bed and was screaming. _Maybe, if I can make contact, I can warn her_ she thought as she began painfully dragging herself across the bed, but just before she could make contact she was falling once again. Theo landed and was once more in the library, thunder all around her, and her younger self was standing just a few feet away. _Please,_ she thought as she inched her way closer to her terrified self. She waited with her arm outstretched in agony for what felt like millennia but she wouldn’t force this on anyone. When her younger self took her hand she felt the darkness consume her, as though she was falling into a deep slumber.

Theo blinked and she was ten again, standing with her back against the library door, her head pounding with each clap of thunder. Out of the corners of her hazy vision she saw a figure approach, a red haired woman in a flapper dress.

“Welcome home,” the flapper said, an insidious grin spreading across her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Breathes a sigh of relief] you have no idea how long I've waited to make that reveal. Not going to lie, half the reason this chapter is so long is because I wanted to get to that without recklessly rushing rushing through stuff. Let me know if it's shocking or obvious, or if it's even a good reveal, maybe I'm just full of myself lol.  
> In any case I hope you liked this big drink of water (still 3k shorter than the chapters in The Haunting of Schattenhaus Estate but I digress).  
> See you next week!


	15. A Cold Welcome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A weakened Theo confronts the strange specter that welcomed her home after her encounter with the Broken Face Lady.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey readers, I'm not dead or anything like that. Sorry for the unexpected hiatus, some family stuff came up and I didn't have time to write/edit a new chapter.  
> In any case, I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Nausea and panic swept through Theodora as she tried to make sense of all that had just happened, questioning her sanity and reality as she slumped against the door behind her. The red haired flapper giggled as she watched Theo reel from her experience.

“Feeling a little jetlagged?” The flapper asked in a mocking tone.

“What in the fuck was that, also who the hell are you?” Theo asked as she struggled to keep the contents of her stomach in place.

“Oh, yes, you wouldn’t remember. Such a good gal, following instructions like that.”

“You better start making sense soon or I’ll…”

“Or you’ll _what_? Bleed on me?”

“Bleed?” Theo pondered before she noticed the wet feeling on her lips and face, a simple taste test confirmed that it was in fact blood.

“And here I thought only those of us who have woken up could just pop between moments, but look at you: jumping back, forth, and every which way regardless of how it’s killing you.”

“I don’t care,” Theo said, trying to sound tough even as she slid down to the floor in pain and exhaustion, “I’ll do whatever I have to to keep them safe from this place.”

“Oh, doll, didn’t your little trip enlighten you? **You fail.** You destroy your own mind and they still die, and so you do. So here’s some friendly advice: stop while you’re ahead. You’ll have all the time in the world with them eventually, so why bother?”

Theo wanted to tell her to fuck off but couldn’t find the strength to.

“Theo!” She looked up to the second floor balcony to see Luke, “Theo’s in the library!”

Before long the Crains came rushing into the library and the red haired woman was gone.

“Jesus Christ!” Nellie blurted when she saw Theo.

“What happened, where did you go?” Shirley asked as she rushed to Theo’s side to help her get upright. It was unpleasant feeling their anxiety and worry when Theo was still processing what just happened.

“Hey guys, been a minute,” she said, trying to sound tough and aloof.

“Tell us what happened, sweetie,” her mother pleaded.

“I, uh, don’t know how to put it. It was like none of you could see me…” despite her efforts to remain stoic she felt tears begin to roll down her face and her voice rise in pitch with anxiety, “I followed you guys around and shouted but you never noticed me,” The whole family stood in a silent huddle, stunned by the night’s strange events. Theo was about to burst when the lights of Hill House illuminated and the tempest outside dwindled into a soft pitter patter, “can I go back to bed now?”

“I got her,” Shirley said after another moment of silence.

* * *

Shirley escorted Theo to her bedroom and tucked her in, she made to leave but lingered at the door before turning around and coming back to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Can I help you?” Theo said, just wanting to go back to sleep.

“You’ve been real coy about it but you said that something’s going on here. I’m not going to make you tell me everything but you need to stop pretending like you’re alone in this.”

“What?”

“Every time something weird happens you tell us that you’re doing everything you can to stop it, but you keep us in the dark and try to handle everything yourself like you’re Superman or something!”

“It’s more of a Batman move, really,” Theo said with absentminded sardonicism.

“Hey, I’m being serious! Christ,” Shirley inhaled deeply, “all I’m saying is you can let us help.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“All the more reason to include us! Me and Steve, at least. I can’t watch you go through this alone anymore. I don’t care how cool you think you are, I’m your big sister and I’m going to help you fix whatever this is.”

Theo sighed and then smiled, “okay, you win, but can we save the hero work for the morning?”

Shirley smiled back and made her way out of the room. “Good night,” she said softly before closing the door.

Once Theo was reasonably sure Shirley was out of earshot, she wept, overwhelmed by the night’s events and her hop through time, but also by the realization of how alone she had felt despite having her entire family with her. She fought so hard and nearly took them for granted, but no longer. Distancing herself had been playing right into the House’s hands, the Crains had to do more than stick together, they had to fight together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure I'll be able to keep a consistent schedule going foreword. Life is getting more complicated and I find myself being spread thin creativity-wise.  
> I fully intend to finish this fic though, it's too important to me to abandon.  
> Thank you for sticking with me, see you next time <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading this! This is my first time writing for a lesbian character so if I committed a faux pas let me know and I'll try to make it right.  
> I'm very excited to finally be posting this fic, I've decided to stop posting mega long chapters like I did with previous works in this series. I'll try to update regularly. Feel free to comment and let me know what you liked and/or hated, I love to engage with my readers.  
> Thank you so much for reading!


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